Sermon by The Rev. John Mangels
The Thirteenth Sunday After Pentecost
August 30, 2009
All Saints Episcopal Church
Sacramento, CA
THE WORD OF GOD
First Lesson: Song of Solomon 2:8-
Psalm 45:1-
Second Lesson: James 1:17-
The Holy Gospel: Mark 7:1-
Sharing Our Faith
Many years ago, a funny thing happened to my wife on her way home from Los Angeles. We were living in Susanville at the time. She and my daughters, both in the early years of grade school at the time, had made it about as far as Auburn, when the car broke down.
Oil was being sucked up into the air filter, and down into the carburetor. Someone at a gas station figured this out. But he couldn’t fix it. He did, however, tow her back, at the standard fee, to the Subaru dealership in Roseville.
Up to this point, this is a pretty standard story. But the trip back was, all things considered, pretty pleasant. Anne and the girls sang songs. And the man in the tow truck joined them when he knew the songs. This was mostly when they sang the church songs they knew: “Jesus Loves Me,” “Away in the Manger”… things like that.
The man from the gas station also took them, and some of their things, to a motel – making sure that they really had a room before he left. He was kind, and pleasant and polite. Anne was clearly very impressed when I saw her, very early the next morning (when I arrived from Susanville). He made a messy situation much more bearable. Even the kids were impressed. They said he acted like he was a daddy.
After checking out the car problem, to be sure it could be fixed that day, Anne and the kids took the other car home. I waited for the repairs to be made. And I was rather shocked, many hours later, to beat them home. This was in the days before we had cell phones, so I had to wait hours to find out what happened.
Anne had stopped in Auburn to thank the man who helped them, and to find out why the engine was running hot. It turned out that our fan clutch, replaced about a month earlier, was defective. He rummaged through his junked parts, and found a fan clutch that would work. He made the repairs and replaced the coolant. And when he was done, he charged Anne for the coolant, and he wouldn’t take any more.
Anne and I talk about this man as our Good Samaritan. He found travelers in need, and he helped them on their way – with some investment of his own time and resources. We still remember him with real thanksgiving.
There is a question, however, that Anne and I have speculated about: was he a Christian? We speculated that he might be, from the songs he knew, and the actions he took. But we’ll probably never know.
In some ways, this really doesn’t matter. I’m sure James would call this a “generous act of giving” which “comes from above” regardless. Our needs were met in a wonderful act of kindness. But if he is a Christian, I think he missed a bet. He exercised a wonderful gift of service. But, if he was a Christian, did he realize he was also making a witness to his faith?
I mean, sometimes we’re sloppy in our thinking. I’ve told the story on myself before. Some friends in Wyoming bought a cabin just outside of Yellowstone. Anne was telling me one day how it had happened. She said that Connie saw ads for this place three times in the same week, and finally decided . . .
I interrupted, “That it was fate!”
“No!” Anne replied. “She decided that it might be the will of God.”
I’m sure that all of us do Christian service and evangelism. But I’m not sure that we always realize what we’re doing. The lives we live are a witness, an evangel, a proclamation of our good news. We represent Jesus Christ to those who may not know him. We are full time ambassadors of Christ, whether we know it, or like it, or not. Often this isn’t clear to anyone involved.
Let me tell another story on myself. A young woman in a checkout line asked me once, with a lot of animation in her voice, if the cross I was wearing had any special meaning for me. I was wearing my collar, as well as the cross. And I was thinking, I didn’t get this cross for any special occasion. And it wasn’t any special kind of cross. So I answered her, no, it was just a cross. And I watched the energy go out of her.
Thinking about it later, I suspect she was asking me if I were a Christian. And in a world where people at a jewelry counter may say they’d like the cross with the funny little man on it, I guess the answer to that question really cannot be taken for granted.
In Episcopal circles, evangelism is often referred to at “the E word” -
Our most effective evangelism is what we do in the normal course of our lives. What
we do with our friends and neighbors and co-
Yet I remember one of the mainstays of one of my churches was (and is) of an evangelical bent. She recognizes the importance of sharing her witness. Shortly after her business partner of over 20 years died – he lived in a neighboring town – she told me that she had no idea if he had any faith at all, let alone what it might be. I’ve known him and loved him well for some 20 years, she told me, and I have no idea if he knows that I am a Christian.
Those who keep track of such things tell me that over 80% of people who attend a church for the first time come in response to an invitation from someone they know well. And, I don’t know what the statistics are here, but the last I heard the average Episcopalian invited someone to church once every 26 years.
I think we’ve found something worth sharing in this church. I think we’ve experienced living in the love of God, in the midst of a community that knows and shares the love of God. And I think that’s life changing.
One of the things this summer’s General Convention did was to ask each diocese to work out a procedure for training and licensing evangelists in every congregation. I know our bishop is taking this charge seriously. The Commission on Ministry is already working on this charge. Evangelism, sharing the good news we’ve experienced in our lives, is an important part of God’s call to his church.
Our baptismal covenant commits us to witness to our Lord in word and deed. Like our Good Samaritan tow truck driver, I’m willing to bet that most of us don’t have too much problem with deeds of service. But we do all seem to be pretty embarrassed to talk about our faith. And that’s a shame.
I remember a youth pastor, who had worked with this one teen for years, always being very careful not to pressure him and scare him away, always hoping he would one day want to be baptized and confirmed.
He ran into him the middle of one summer, when the youth group was on break. “Guess what Father,” he said with excitement. “I’ve been saved!”
“That’s wonderful,” he replied. “How did it happen?”
“Well,” he said, “one of my friends wanted to go to this revival meeting, so I went with him. And when the preacher asked if anyone there wanted to commit their lives to Jesus Christ, I just thought it was time.”
“You mean,” the priest asked, when he was telling me this story, “all I had to do was ask?”
I say this to you in the Name of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.